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Your Biggest Win Isn't a Unicorn, It's a Blueprint
By Teasha Cable
Most regions know how to celebrate a big win. Fewer know how to ask what made it possible, and whether it can happen again.
Most regions know how to celebrate a big win. Fewer know how to ask what made it possible, and whether it can happen again.
That was the thread running through my conversation with Marta Tarantsey, regional development officer at Business Oregon who serves Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, and Lake Counties in Southern Oregon.
Marta has spent more than 12 years in Oregon state service. She started in civil rights compliance at ODOT, spent three years certifying more than 400 small businesses for state contracting, and has spent about eight years as a regional development officer. That path gives her an unusual view. She has seen the state's programs from the policy side and from the owner's side of the phone.
Stop Treating Success Like a Unicorn...Make it Your Blueprint
Southern Oregon is home to two Fortune 500 companies, Lithia & Driveway, and Dutch Bros Coffee, the state's largest IPO ever. Marta's point is simple and a little uncomfortable.
If we treat it like a unicorn, that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But how do we replicate it?
Her version of replication is a mindset, not a program. Assume the next big company is not yet known, or even founded, and make sure the region is ready for it.
She is also about 20 years from retirement, while many people in the rooms she works in are much closer. Someone has to start the ten-year conversation, and she is stepping up and into the challenge.
Neutral Does Not Mean Passive
When I ran my decision-making persona exercise, Marta rated herself at 40 percent for the values-driven Feeler. Her role as a state liaison requires neutrality. She cannot prioritize one business over another, and everything she does has to be defensible.
What she does instead is make sure every business knows the full portfolio of state, federal, and partner resources.
She connects them with a small business development center advisor to rethink how they are positioned.
Helping them reframe is following the rules. That is customer service. That is public service.
The one exception is when she sits on the review panel for that grant. Then she steps away completely and points them to the advisor.
The Phone is the Data Source
Marta also pushed back on the idea that everything can be measured. Business Oregon's programs have reporting built in, and some grants ask recipients whether a trade show actually led to international sales. But the next generation of clusters has no track record yet.
We have no data on some of the coolest things Oregon will come up with yet.
What her region does track is new business starts and patent filings. When one manufacturer moved its headquarters, patents filed from the Oregon address dropped, then recovered through much smaller businesses.
That told her exactly who to call next.
The signals reach her because she stays close to the people building things. She sits in two regional startup peer groups, joins site visits with workforce partners, and passes what she hears to elected officials.
A local advanced manufacturer emailed her about the new quality jobs tax credit the day before the press release, because they had already put a reminder on their calendar.
I'm the aggregator. I'm the connector. It's a privilege to get that phone call.
The Takeaway
- First, if you work in economic development, document what made your last big win possible. Workforce, infrastructure, capital, and relationships are all fair game.
- Second, pick two or three early signals, such as new business starts and patent filings, and track them consistently.
- Third, be transparent about what funding exists. Marta described managing expectations with an applicant who wanted the full statewide amount of a program.
- Finally, never structure your business around a certification. Certification can be a competitive advantage, but it never guarantees an award, and chasing it can cost you more than it earns.
If it's rolled out transparently, you will not have that ask.
Never structure your business for a particular certification. You're putting yourself at a disadvantage for the sake of a particular recognition.
Listen to the full conversation, and then ask what your region is doing today so that its next big success is not a one-time event.